


A Fool's Bet

by aris_shitwriting



Category: How to Get Away with Murder
Genre: Bets, Caplan & Gold, F/F, Hell Bowl, Law Firm, Michaela is a badass, One Shot, Tegan is a useless lesbian
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-30
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:34:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28438464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aris_shitwriting/pseuds/aris_shitwriting
Summary: The time has come for Caplan & Gold to select this year's interns. Usually, it is a long, boring process that Tegan has no time or interested in and wishes to be free from. This year though, a beautiful, confident and inspiring intern catches her eye. Her name is Michaela Pratt and Tegan is awestruck when she lays eyes on her, when she hears her speak with so much self-assurance. Michaela turns out to be a dangerous thing for Tegan as she can make her act against her instincts with a newfound recklessness she didn't know she possessed.
Relationships: Michaela Pratt/Tegan Price
Comments: 6
Kudos: 12





	A Fool's Bet

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first work in this fandom and my second work overall so it probably won't be the best you've ever read. I should be finishing my MUN position paper that is due in two days but I love Tegan Price so much that I am choosing to write a fic about her instead of focusing on my work. The world needs more of Tegan Price, anyway. It's a crime how there's less than a hundred fics about her so enjoy my procrastination induced take on the episode where Tegan and Michaela met.  
> Warning - I romanticize the hell out of everything (and I did not proof read/have a beta reader read this so there probably will be mistakes)

Tegan hadn't felt like this in a long time. It was a dangerous, overpowering feeling that made her act foolishly, recklessly. She couldn't understand why she bet two thousand dollars on the young beauty that had sauntered into the office all high mighty, impressing everyone with her wit and confidence.

The only thing she understood was that it was exhilarating, and that she wanted to it again and again and again.

Michaela’s presence in the office made her feel alive again in a way that she hadn’t felt since she met Cora. It was something she wanted to lose herself in, even though she knew from past experience that it would end disastrously.

Yet she couldn’t stop thinking about her. Her impressive wooing of the other partners, her natural ability to handle men who acted like entitled boys, her flustered expression when Tegan caught her talking to her boyfriend when she was supposed to be working. She had a boyfriend, for crying out loud. That was enough of a reason for her to block her mind to anything that was related to Michaela Pratt.

So, Tegan bet on her. She cherished in watching Michaela beat all the other pathetic interns who probably wouldn’t last a year in Caplan & Gold. Every correct answer she gave at the hell bowl sent a jolt through Tegan’s heart like she was a shy schoolgirl drooling over the captain of the football team. And when she was asked to confirm if she had indeed passed the bar at age twenty-two, she couldn’t help but show off a little. Anything to draw Michaela’s attention on her.

“I’m a savant, what can I say?” she replied with an air of superiority, the way she knew had interns begging to impress her.

So she surveyed the interns, picking out the ones she knew would succeed. They weren’t many and Michaela was definitely at the top of that list, but her instincts never failed her. Not when it came to this, not when she was distinguishing between who would make it and who would not.

The final four interns still standing at the end of the first round confirmed her thoughts, albeit no one at the level of the charismatic Miss Pratt. So, when the other partners started making bets, she couldn’t help herself. The other partners were shocked at the large sum of money she was willing to sacrifice for just an intern, a few even outright laughed. In her gut, she knew that Michaela could win so her money wouldn’t be wasted.

A quick look in Michaela’s direction made her doubt her rash decision. Scowling at the papers she had been assigned and mumbling at one of the other finalists showing off, it was obvious that he had gotten under her skin about the hell bowl.

Tegan suddenly got an idea. She could make sure her integrity wasn’t compromised if Michaela lost and get to satisfy her curiosity by bossing Michaela around. Really, it was the perfect opportunity. She might’ve thanked the other finalist, Mr Drake, for presenting this to her in a silver platter if she wasn’t his superior, or if he wasn’t an arrogant show-off.

Schooling her features to a neutral nonchalance, Tegan approached Michaela’s desk, her heart beating more and more heavily.

“Stand up,” she whispered, motioning to Michaela to follow her. The surprised look on her face was worth every cent she had bet, even if she lost it all the next day.

“That is not a request,” she added as an afterthought, delighting in being able to tell Michaela what to do, even if it was in her job description.

“Do not let that man child get in your head,” said Tegan, meaning every word of it. It would be a shame if a great mind like Michaela didn’t rise to her potential because of a self-centred boy.

“No, he’s not” she hastily exclaimed, clearly trying to keep her pristine imagine intact.

“He’s in there, I can tell, which means he already has the upper hand” Tegan replied matter-of-factly at Michaela’s feeble attempt to convince her otherwise.

“He doesn’t, I promise,” Michaela assured Tegan again.

“If he loses, he sucks. But if you lose, women suck. That’s why you need to annihilate him,” Tegan said, cleverly hiding her intentions with a truth that pained her more than she liked to admit. Despite fighting tooth and nail to get the praise and respect she deserved, that all women deserved, it was still disheartening when even a small, human mistake could jeopardize her professional reputation. Especially when in the same situation a male partner in the firm would shrug it off and laugh about it with his colleagues over drinks.

“I thought this was one of the best firms for women,” Michaela said, confused.

“It is,” she simply said at the brutal truth that followed her like a curse every day in this office.

“Go study, otherwise I’m out two grand,” she added, already starting to leave after she dropped the huge bomb on Michaela. She knew she could handle it, though. She wouldn’t have said anything if she knew she couldn’t. And, she liked to see her squirm.

“Uh, what?” Michaela said, her eyes widening at Tegan’s revelation.

“I bet on you. Be flattered,” Tegan said with a smirk and turned to leave, undoubtedly leaving behind a shocked Michaela who had just now realised how high the stakes were for the both of them. Tegan spent the rest of the day with that shocked expression in the forefront of her mind. When she finally went home at the end of the day the thoughts of Michaela followed, along with a newfound restlessness that she had never felt before. She desired to see Michaela again, even if the consequence was losing money earned through hard work.

That night, as she lay in bed, she fell asleep with Michaela’s smile that exuded pure determination replaying over and over in her mind.

The next morning, she woke up before her alarm. She looked through all her clothes and picked a red jacket that brought out her eyes, or so had Cora said when she bought it for her. She felt a twinge of guilt at thinking about Cora but quickly rid her mind of any such thoughts. She couldn’t, wouldn’t let Michaela have this big of an effect on her.

That morning she took her time with her make up and hair, making sure everything was on fleek. Even if she didn’t like Michaela’s effect on her, why shouldn’t she be able to make the younger woman’s jaw drop as she congratulated her on her win?

The day passed impossible slow after she got to the office. Half of the time her eyes wondered to the desk on the other side of the building where Michaela was seated in a sleek black suit, looking uncharacteristically glum. She prayed that their little conversation the day before had gotten through to her, or that she hadn’t stressed her even more by putting all that weight about the bet and proving that women weren’t inferior on her shoulders. Before she started overthinking the situation she turned back to her work, a boring civil case about a dairy company being sued for not disclosing the fat content of their cheese spreads. Really, who bothered with these kinds of things?

As soon as she got through the thick file of old white ladies complaining about how cheese spreads ruined their bodies, the second round of the hell bowl was announced. Her breath hitched in her throat as she stalked over to the two podiums with an unfazed look on her face.

The whole tournament passed by in a blur and soon only two finalists remained. Michaela and Mr Drake, who was becoming more and more arrogant by the second. The last question was read and with a pleased look on her face, Tegan turned to Michaela.

“In what foreign city is Caplan & Gold’s smallest satellite office?” her boss read out from his tablet. Her mind lit up as it screamed the answer to her, but she held her breath when she saw Mr Drake’s hand reaching for his buzzer a fraction of a second before Michaela could. Just like that, a dropping sensation in her chest almost made her fall over but she managed to stay upright, an amused look on her face.

“Lagos, Nigeria,” said Mr Drake and she exhaled at his incorrect answer. Close enough, but still incorrect. Tegan’s eyes turned to Michaela as Mr Drake exclaimed at being told he had been wrong. With her back turned to her, she couldn’t see the younger woman’s expression, but she grew more and more worried as Michaela stayed silent. Michaela had to know the answer was Kigali, she just had to. It couldn’t have been all for nothing.

“Kigali, Rwanda,” Michaela said in an unsure voice. Tegan couldn’t stop her smile from spreading across her face, one of the few genuine smiles she rarely gave to anyone at work. The joy she felt was genuine too, and definitely not at the two thousand dollars she had just won. She couldn’t help but be proud of Michaela, proud at her for proving herself against all the entitled men she had gone up against.

Clapping thundered in her ears as she approached her, sizing her up and placing a careful hand at the small of her back. With an impressed look, she walked away, leaving Michaela to determine its meaning for herself.

Later, when she was once again looking through the files of the sketchy dairy company, she heard a knock on the glass wall of her office.

“Yeah?” she said, not really caring who wanted to speak to her until she turned around and saw Michaela’s slender figure standing in her office, holding two plastic glasses with some kind of alcoholic beverage inside, undoubtedly from the bottle opened to celebrate Michaela’s win.

“I though you might be thirsty,” was all Michaela said in that low soft voice of her that did terrible things to Tegan’s mind. She held out one of the glasses but Tegan, wanted to tease, took both and turned to her work with a simple thank you.

“You need something else?” Tegan questioned when Michaela didn’t take the hint and leave.

“I want to work for you,” uttered Michaela. At that, Tegan turned again, letting her shock and interest show on her face. Admiration shone clear as day in her black eyes, sending a jolt straight to Tegan’s heart. 

“Why?” she nonchalantly asked, desperate to hear Michaela’s reasoning.

“You’re brilliant, you win all your cases and you have the best client list in the firm. I’d kill to work on any of your accounts. Antares, for example,” Michaela said, her voice now sure and unwavering. The praise did unspeakable things to Tegan and she knew that she’d replay this moment over and over again in her head that night, the thrill it gave her making her heart skip a beat. It also made her feel something else, something in a more southern area of her body, but this wasn’t the time to contemplate that. She would surely explore it later, under her silk sheets. 

“Okay, but it’s your funeral” replied Tegan, once again impressed at Michaela’s confidence. With a parting look at the younger woman who had so quickly wormed her way into Tegan’s mind, she turned back to her case file, a content smile playing at her lips.

“Close the door on your way out” was the last thing she said to Michaela that night. She knew she would enjoy their time working together. It was displayed on her face for the world to see and she couldn’t back down from the opportunity to spend more bossing Michaela around the firm. She wanted to learn her reactions and be able to anticipate them, how her mind worked and what affected her. She wanted to learn how to read Michaela so that she might use it to her advantage when the time came.

With a start, Tegan realised she was further down the line than she had initially realised. Maybe it was a good thing, maybe it wasn’t. One thing was for sure. With a ghost of a smile on her lips, Tegan knew that she would thoroughly enjoy getting to know Michaela better.


End file.
